


Buck's Baby Box

by McRaider



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Athena Grant and Bobby Nash are Evan "Buck" Buckley's Parents, Buckley A+ Parenting, Everyone else mentioned - Freeform, Firehouse 118 Crew as Family (9-1-1 TV), Gen, Good Friend Howie "Chimney" Han, Insecure Evan "Buck" Buckley, Protective Maddie Buckley, Supportive Firehouse 118 Crew (9-1-1 TV), Upset Evan "Buck" Buckley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 22:49:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29497566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McRaider/pseuds/McRaider
Summary: “They didn’t make one for Buck, I can assume why, and while I’m not quite ready to tell you the details, it breaks my heart knowing that last night my little brother asked about his and silently had his heart ripped out when they didn’t reply. I...I need to make it right,” Maddie whispered tearfully.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Maddie Buckley, Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han
Comments: 5
Kudos: 206
Collections: 9-1-1 Tales





	Buck's Baby Box

**Author's Note:**

> Don't get me wrong, I LOVED the postcards, but I couldn't help but feel like they could've done more. So this is what I would've liked to have seen instead.

After the disastrous dinner, and recalling how absolutely devastated her brother had looked at being told he didn’t have a baby box, the soon-to-be mom got an idea in her head. She showed up the next morning at the police station, her own baby box clutched under her arm, in her purse she had the hundreds of postcards her little brother had sent her over the years. 

Athena was finishing up her morning paperwork when she saw Maddie walking toward her, arms full. She smiled at the younger woman, “To what do I owe this visit?” she asked as Maddie set the box down in front of her. 

“Do you know what this is?” Maddie asked. 

Athena looked down at the box with Maddie’s name inscribed across the front, she’d heard about baby boxes. She personally hadn’t kept a box, rather having kept a scrapbook for her children, “I assume it’s a baby box,” Athena replied as she opened it and saw all the small baby items. “I take it your parents brought this to the dinner last night?” She asked, she didn’t need to elaborate that Buck had come to their place after the screaming match, she knew that Buck had told his sister as much. 

“Yeah, just one of the many things they did wrong last night,” she replied with a sigh, “But I’m not here about them. I’m here about Buck.” 

Athena pivoted in her chair to give the younger woman her full attention, “All right, I’m listening.” 

“They didn’t make one for Buck, I can assume why, and while I’m not quite ready to tell you the details, it breaks my heart knowing that last night my little brother asked about his and silently had his heart ripped out when they didn’t reply. I...I need to make it right,” Maddie whispered tearfully. 

Athena could understand that, she couldn’t imagine what sort of people made a box for one of their children but not another. “What did you have in mind?” she asked. 

Maddie opened her purse and handed Athena the ziplock bag of all the cards from her brother, additionally, she pulled out an old photo sleeve, which wasn’t too bulky, but certainly had a few pictures in it. Finally, pausing, Maddie reached into the purse once more and pulled out two hospital bands, one tiny, no doubt baby Evan’s, the other from his hospitalization after the truck. “I can’t give him all the same things from his infancy, but...I don’t think that’s what he’d want anyway. Buck doesn’t want to remember his childhood.” 

“He wants to relish in the man he’s become now,” Athena finished as she nodded, “You want to create a Baby Buck box rather than a baby Evan?” 

“Can you help me?” Maddie asked, her tone bordering on pleading. 

“Of course I can, we all have loads of pictures from that boy,” Athena assured with a smile.

“Thank you, Athena!” Maddie gasped in delight as she hugged the woman close. Athena was the closest thing Maddie had ever had to a mother and she was so grateful that this woman had all but adopted Buck. 

Over the course of the next four days, while the team was busy, they all worked diligently and silently in the background to make the perfect baby box for their youngest team member. Once the kids had discovered what was going on, they too had decided to show their big brother how much they loved him. 

Maddie wasn’t surprised when her brother wouldn’t speak to her after he learned about Daniel and being a savior baby. Still, she clung hard and fast to the hope that their relationship was, and always had been fixable. But by the time she got a text from Chimney saying her brother was physically fine and headed home with him, Maddie had the box in her bedroom just waiting for him to ask. 

They spoke for a few minutes, she had to admit she was impressed at her brother’s willingness to forgive their parents, but she understood why it was so easy. At the end of the day they had put the distance there, he owed them nothing. Similarly, he owed her nothing as well, and yet despite that, as he promised he was working on it and that he was sorry for lashing out at her, as he made his way to her baby box, longing in his pretty blue eyes, she felt her heart light up with delight. 

“So, be honest, I don’t really have one of these, do I?” he asked, running his finger over the polished wood. 

“Hold on one second,” she replied as she moved down the hall, Chimney was waiting for her, holding the box close, and together they both headed out into the main living room again. 

“It’s not exactly a baby box…” Maddie explained as she held the box out to him. 

Her brother looked at her and Chimney in a mixture of confusion and nervousness, before he set the box down beside his sisters. Like his sister’s, the box was made out of dark, fine, polished wood. That was where the differences ended. Instead of his name in the center, the firefighter’s emblem sat in the center, craved across it was the fireman’s prayer: 

“ _When I am called to duty, God wherever flames may rage,_

_ give me the strength to save a life, whatever be its age. _

_ Help me to embrace a little child before it's too late, _

_ or save an older person from the horror of that fate. _

_ Enable me to be alert to hear the weakest shout, _

_ and quickly and efficiently to put the fire out. _

_ I want to fill my calling and to give the best in me, _

_ to guard my neighbor and protect his property. _

_ And if according to your will I have to lose my life, _

_ bless with your protecting hand my loving family from strife.”  _

His name was etched at the top: Evan “Buck” Buckley - Buck’s eyes widened at the next word. “It...it says Nash,” he whispered as he ran his fingers over the hyphenated last name. 

Maddie looked over at Chimney who had his arm wrapped around his girlfriend, as they watched, “I can’t give you back happy memories from our childhood, but...maybe this will help,” she offered. 

Buck looked back down at the box as he slowly lifted the lid, unlike his sister’s box, there weren’t any discernible baby items, in fact, the only thing he saw of his from when he’d been born was his hospital bracelet. But the first thing he laid eyes on was all the postcards he’d sent her over the years. “You kept them?” he asked as he pulled the stack out. 

“Of course I kept them, Buck,” she smiled as she grabbed his free hand, “I know I helped you survive that house and our childhood. But sometimes I don’t think you realize just how much you helped me survive Doug, whenever I was at the darkest, you were there,” she replied pointing to the cards. 

He smiled, before his eyes landed on a picture of Bobby and him at the Springsteen concert, smiling he flipped it over to find ‘first father and son outing’ written on the back in Bobby’s handwriting. 

He found pictures and cards made by Denny, Nia, Christopher, May, and Harry, letters from each of the parents, little trinkets from his first year as a firefighter. “I know I said you’re still growing, and we can definitely keep adding to it, but Buck, you’re always going to be our brother, we love you, Athena and Bobby love you, Hen loves you. Eddie definitely loves you, you have a family, man.” Chimney assured the younger man as he gripped his shoulder. 

Tears slipping down his face, Buck turned and accepted the warm and loving hug from his sister and future brother-in-law. “Thank you,” he sobbed into their shoulders, as he clung to them tightly. 

“We love you, Buck. So, so much,” Maddie whispered through her own tears. 

End


End file.
